Chapter XVIII (2)

The north side of the town, from its present appearance, does not seem to have been ever much inhabited, and very few remains of dwelling-houses are observable there. The buildings which still exist are however of an interesting character, and excavation would be particularly desirable in this part. Two eminences which rise conspicuously above the general level of the summit are occupied by the ruins of spacious temples, and close to the western wall of the city is all that remains of the stadium. The largest of the temples (we mean the ædes, without the columns) is a hundred and sixty-nine English feet in length, and its breadth sixty-one feet. It is of the Doric order, in its early style; and the capitals, which with the columns are lying on the ground, still exhibit marks of excellent taste and execution, though very much defaced by time; they measure nine feet across, and the capital and abacus are of one piece. The form of this building is peripteral; but the columns on the sides appear to have been twelve in number, which is one more than is allowed to temples of that class by Vitruvius, supposing the edifice to be hexastyle; for in peripteral temples the number of intercolumniations on the flanks should, according to this author, be only double those of the front. That there were twelve columns, however, appeared evident on the first inspection, from the existing number of capitals lying on one of the sides of the temple; and on adding two spaces, and the diameters of two columns to the length of the ædes (or body of the temple), which is, as we have stated from actual measurement, a hundred and sixty-nine English feet, and comparing this measurement with that of twelve columns and eleven spaces, the first number given was two hundred and five, and the latter two hundred and four, which result was quite near enough to be conclusive of the fact. In this calculation we have taken the diameter of the columns, as they measured within an inch or two, at six feet; and supposed the intercolumniation to be systyle, that is two diameters of the columns. The same calculation applies equally to the breadth of the temple, which would seem to prove that the intercolumniation assumed was correct,—six columns and five spaces giving ninety-six,—and the breadth of the ædes, with two spaces, and the diameters of two columns added, ninety-seven; bringing the results within one of each other, as in the instance just given with regard to the length. Traces are still remaining of a pronaos and posticus; but one of the walls of the pronaos (the only one remaining) has a very decided return of two feet (at its central extremity) in the direction of the cella. The depth of the posticus is at the same time much greater than that of the pronaos, and rather more than half as much as that of the cella: this distribution is, however, consistent with the character of the climate; for the rain falls very heavily, and almost incessantly, during the winter season at Cyrene; and the unusual space given to the posticus would be found very serviceable to the inhabitants, particularly as the temple was somewhat removed from what may be called the inhabited part of the town. The same reasoning would apply equally in summer time, for the heat of Cyrene is at that period very great. An additional motive for increasing the posticus so much beyond its usual dimensions would be found in the width of the ambulatory (which is regulated by that of the intercolumniations), for the systyle species is too contracted to afford much shelter on any occasion; and we may probably assume, from the calculations above stated, that the temple in question was in fact of that species, although the intercolumniation could not otherwise be ascertained, on account of the encumbered and ruined state of the building, which we had no opportunity of excavating.

We should mention that the walls of the ædes have decided returns of six feet both in front and rear of the temple, towards the two columns which range in a line with them; they are about four feet and a half in thickness, and one of the stones of which they were composed measured fifteen feet in length.

The smaller temple, like that which we have just described, was built upon a rising ground, and had the additional elevation of a very solid basement or substructure, considerably raised above the level of the summit of the hill, part of which (about four-and-twenty feet) has been left as a kind of terrace round the building. The disposition of the columns is by no means evident in this temple, and the number is very uncertain; but the ambulatory must have been a good deal below the pavement of the ædes, since there is no space allowed for it upon the basement we have mentioned; and it must consequently have been upon the terrace beneath it, which appears to have been left for that purpose. The columns must therefore have been unconnected with the roof, and have merely supported the covering of the ambulatory. Indeed, it seems likely that the portico was altogether detached from the ædes, and judging from the remains of a wall, which appears to be part of the original plan, and the position of a column without it, we may perhaps suppose that it was situated on the edge of the terrace above-mentioned; and that the whole space of four-and-twenty feet between this wall and that of the ædes, was a space between the portico and the body of the temple, which does not appear to have been covered in. In this disposition we imagine the wall just alluded to to have formed the back of the portico, and the column, still remaining, to have been one of the range which supported its roof in front. Immediately below this column the ground descends, and traces may be observed of steps leading up to it.

In the ædes there seem to have been only a pronaos and cella; and in the latter is a detached mass of building, raised above the level of the other parts of it, for which we are wholly at a loss to account, there being no analogy between its disposition and that of any part of a cella in its usual arrangements.

The length of the ædes is a hundred and eleven feet, and its breadth fifty feet; the outer walls are four feet in thickness, and that of the pronaos somewhat more than three. The capitals of some fluted columns which are now lying at the foot of the hill on which the temple stands, are of no established order of architecture, and may perhaps be said to be a mixture of Greek and Egyptian; a coalition which we should certainly expect to meet with at Cyrene, but of which we recollect to have seen only a few instances. Close to this building, on its northern side, is the quarry from which the stone employed in its construction was probably taken, forming a deep trench at the foot of the hill. The aspect of both temples is nearly east, as is usual, we believe, in buildings of such a description.

To the eastward of the larger temple, and close to the city walls, are the remains of the stadium, part of which is excavated in the rocky soil on which it stands, and those parts only built which the rock could not supply. Its length is somewhat more than seven hundred feet, and its breadth about two hundred and fifty. The course is now so much buried, and overgrown with long grass and other vegetation, that the mode in which it was disposed could not be ascertained with any certainty; neither is it easy to decide clearly how much space was allotted to the seats, which do not occupy at present more than five-and-thirty feet on either side. The whole is, in fact, (like the temples,) in a very ruinous state, and nearly all the constructed part has disappeared. There are two masses of building to the north-westward of the stadium, which appear to have had some connection with it, but we will not venture to state any decided opinion with respect to their precise use. One of them is a solid quadrangular mass, now about five feet in height, which appears to have been intended as a station merely, from which the horses and chariots of those contending for the prize might be inspected as they entered or came out of the stadium, for it is not sufficiently elevated to command a view of the course. It is fifty-eight feet in length by eighteen in breadth, without any appearance of having been more than a kind of raised platform, unvaried by architectural ornament; and we have only suggested the use for it mentioned because we cannot in fact assign any other to it. The second may, perhaps, have been a small temple, or some building in which the contending parties, and those who had the management or superintendence of the games, might assemble to make arrangements respecting the course, or to settle any differences which might arise with regard to the race. Its form is similar to that of a temple, without external columns; but there is some appearance of there having been a colonnade attached to it, supported by the walls of the building. It is raised upon a small eminence, about an hundred feet to the westward of the terrace, near the entrance of the stadium. Westward of the circular part of the hippodrome, and to the south-east of the largest of the temples which have been described, is a walled space of ground of considerable extent, which may have been appropriated to the gymnasium; but there is so little at present remaining within its limits, that we will not venture an opinion respecting it. We could very much have wished to excavate in parts of this inclosure, as well as about the temple themselves, but our time and means would not allow of it: the stadium would probably afford little of interest, for the stones which were employed in its construction appear to have been carried away in later times to serve in other buildings; and, indeed, little more could be expected from excavating the temples, than fragments of architecture too much decayed by time to render them particularly useful in furnishing details, or of statues which enthusiasm and bigotry have probably defaced, if they should even have been spared by the hand of time.

The city walls approach closely to the southern extremity of the stadium, and are in this part very decided. They begin from the verge of a deep ravine, as will appear by the plan, and continue in an unbroken line to the spacious reservoirs (at the south-eastern angle of the city) which are mentioned in the publication of Dr. Della Cella. Here we lose traces of them, but they again make their appearance on the south side of the buildings just alluded to, and extend to the brink of the large ravine with which the aqueduct communicated. Beyond this (the aqueduct), a wall was unnecessary, for the mountain descends perpendicularly to the bed of the ravine, and renders all approach to the town in this direction impossible; and as the wall of the aqueduct has not been built with arches, but carried along the mountain in a solid mass, it would have been fully sufficient for the purpose of defence, and was probably built solid with this intention.

Square towers were attached to the city wall in various parts, not apparently at regular intervals, but approaching each other more closely where the ground was low, and consequently more favourable to the attack of an enemy. Several parts of the wall have been excavated in the rocky soil on which they stood, and building only employed where the rock was not sufficiently high to render it unnecessary. It should be stated, that the masses of rock here alluded to were not of the nature of a cliff, but detached masses rising in irregular forms as well from within as without the walls. It is evident, as will appear by the plan of the city, that the line of wall was continued round the large reservoirs above mentioned, so as to inclose them completely within its limits, a precaution which might naturally be expected in a climate where water is so valuable. If the winter rains should fail, which we should scarcely think possible at Cyrene, these cisterns might have been filled from the aqueduct which communicated with the principal fountain, for although it only extended across the high ground to the westward of the town, there are traces of conduits, or water-courses, in every part of the city, leading towards the place on which it has been built.

We ought not to omit on this occasion a few remarks which are necessary on the subject of the reservoirs here alluded to, as they may serve to explain an error into which Signor Della Cella appears to have fallen, with respect to the inscriptions which he found in them. He has informed us, that these inscriptions were in a language altogether unknown to us, each stone of the interior wall bearing a separate letter, so that the inscriptions continued, in parallels with the ranges of stone, along the whole length of the buildings in question. The partial absence of light, and the immediate presence of water in these spacious and gloomy subterranean inclosures, appear to have conspired, with the inconvenient position which it was necessary for the Doctor to take, in preventing him from copying more than a few of them. These, however, he tells us, may probably be serviceable in contributing towards the elements of languages now wrapt in obscurity; languages which are the only means at present afforded us of checking the various statements which have come down to us upon the authority of Greek historians, and other writers in that language, who it is well known (Signor Della Cella observes) were so much attached to every thing peculiar to themselves, that they could not avoid pointing out a Grecian origin for whatever bore the traces of civilization. We give the passage here alluded to in the Doctor’s own words[5], and proceed to mention, that the letters which compose his inscriptions have no other meaning than that which is usually conveyed by what are called quarry marks, and do not form any sentence or any single word. Many of them are Greek letters, which are occasionally reversed, and placed in various positions, so that the same letter might at first sight be taken for several others distinct from itself; sometimes two or more Greek letters appear together on the same stone, (occasionally united in a kind of cipher,) and their forms are often made out so rudely, from the dispatch used in cutting and often scratching them on the blocks of stone, as not to bear a very close resemblance to the usual ones. Some of them are not letters of any kind, but simply marks or characters invented for the occasion, as will be observed by the instances which are given of them below[6]. We fear, too, that even if the characters in question had really been inscriptions of the greatest importance, they must have been for ages lost to the world, and were certainly never intended to meet the public eye by those who had them placed where they are; for the whole interior of the cisterns, or reservoirs, upon the stones of which they are inscribed, have been coated with a thick and very hard cement, which still remains perfect in a great many places. We may add that these cisterns, which are three in number, one at right angles with the two others, are partly built, and partly excavated in the rock, as Signor Della Cella very truly observes. The roofs are arched with stone and beautifully turned; indeed, the whole construction of these vaulted chambers, in which large and very regularly-shaped stones have been employed, is excellent in the highest degree. Externally, the roofs are built up on the sides, and form at the top long platforms, or terraces, each of more than a hundred and fifty feet in length, along which we have often walked with pleasure admiring the beauty of their structure.

The south-eastern part of the city appears to be that which was most thickly inhabited, and the number of small buildings crowded closely together are, in their present state, likely to exercise the patience of those who may endeavour to make out their plans. We gave up the task as a hopeless undertaking after a few days’ attentive examination of these remains; and it seems probable, that if we had even succeeded in giving all the details which can now be procured of them, little interesting matter would have resulted from the collection. Those in the centre of the town (in the neighbourhood of the theatres) are of much more importance; and the remains in the space between the theatres and the aqueduct have very considerable interest. We do not think, however, that satisfactory plans could be given of either without a great deal of excavation, and we should certainly hesitate in giving names to any which we have not already described from the details which we were able to procure of them. In the large inclosed space attached to the smaller theatre, where there are still traces of colonnades extending three hundred feet, is a semicircular building situated at the western extremity of one of the porticoes (or colonnades) here alluded to, which resembles in its form the tribunal of a basilica. It is possible that this might have been the forum, as the porticoes would have afforded very ample convenience in any weather for the transaction of business; and its position, close to the principal road leading through the centre of the town with which it communicates by a gateway, would at the same time have been equally favourable. Its situation, however, with regard to the theatre, to which it is decidedly attached, has rather led us to imagine, that this place contained the covered walks, or porticoes, for the convenience, or shelter in rainy weather, of the audience; as which we have mentioned it above. The central space, where there are no traces of building, with the exception of a kind of raised platform opposite the gateway, were most probably in that case laid out as a garden; and the whole together would have somewhat resembled in plan the garden and covered walks of the Palais Royal at Paris. A very strong wall, on the south side of which is the gateway, extends at the present day round three sides of the place; and the southern wall appears to have been continued about four hundred feet farther in the same line (turning then to the north in a line parallel with the eastern wall), and to have inclosed the small theatre within its limits. We have already mentioned the statues which we found in this space, at the back of the theatre now alluded to; and suggested that one of them in all probability was a resemblance of one of the Ptolemies; the head of the statue is wanting, and we fear it has been knocked off at some period by the Arabs of the place, for the chance of disposing of it at Tripoly or Bengazi; a fate which has befallen many a beautiful example of Grecian art, now lying in the city and the neighbourhood of Cyrene. It is possible, however, that it might be found in the course of excavation, although we did not ourselves succeed in discovering it in the parts where we dug for it about the statue. We remember to have been very anxious upon the occasion, and fancied that we should know a head of any of the Lagides, meet with it wherever we might. It was from the decorations carved upon the armour, as we have stated in another place, that we imagined this statue to be the portrait of a Ptolemy; and it is well known that the eagle and the head of Jupiter Ammon are usually borne on the coins of that family. If it had been possible, we should have brought home what remains of this statue (which is merely the trunk), as well as several other very excellent examples of Grecian sculpture in its neighbourhood; and we are convinced, that excavation judiciously employed in the central and eastern parts of Cyrene, would bring to light many beautiful specimens of art, now covered only with the soil and vegetation which have been allowed to accumulate for ages about them. There have been several public buildings of importance immediately without the walls inclosing the theatre, of which plans might perhaps be satisfactorily made, if excavation were employed for the purpose; and it is very probable that inscriptions might at the same time be found, which would help to throw light upon the nature of the buildings, and to ascertain the period at which they were erected. There must be a considerable number of those buried in different parts of the city; for we never saw an ancient town in which fewer inscriptions are to be seen than that of Cyrene; especially for a town in which literature and the fine arts were cultivated with so much success. The few which we copied are scarcely worth inserting, and we shall only give (in addition to that over the fountain) another in Doric Greek, which is given by Signor Della Cella, in the reading of which we also differ in some respects from his copy. It was found upon a stone bearing the form of a pedestal, immediately without the wall above mentioned; and the Doctor has suggested that the remains of a female statue, seated in a chair, which is lying in the road not far from it, was the representation of Claudia Arete, the matron, in commemoration of whose benevolence and virtue the inscription in question was erected by the Cyreneans. We give it below[7], but are not of opinion that the statue alluded to by Dr. Della Cella ever occupied a place upon the pedestal inscribed. Near this female statue is another of a young man (also without the head) which we never remember to have seen equalled in Greek sculpture, for the taste and execution of the drapery.

There are some extensive remains of building, with a very handsome colonnade, on the high ground between the small theatre and the aqueduct, which appear to be those of a palace or other residence of more than ordinary importance. From the northern colonnade the ground descends abruptly, and the soil is kept up by a wall which forms the back part of the chambers built at the foot of it. These consist of a single range of quadrangular apartments, which appear to have been from twenty-five to thirty in number; their length (at right angles with the wall already mentioned) is about forty feet, and their average breadth (for they differ in some instances) about twenty. It is not at present evident, whether these communicated with the building above them or not; but one of them has had a wall built across it, opposite to that which forms the back of the chambers, in which there is no door, so that there could not have been any access to it from the lower ground. There is at the same time no appearance of any staircase leading down to them from above; and if there had, it would have been necessary to have built a separate one for each, for they have no communication one with another. We do not, therefore, imagine that all of them have been closed, but that they had access to the ground in front of them, and none to the colonnades and chambers above. That which is built across is placed at one angle of the range, and is eight feet wider the average breadth, taking it at twenty feet. If a groom or a coachman were to give an opinion with respect to the use of the chambers in question, with reference to the structure above, they would certainly decide, without the least hesitation, that this uniform, long range of building, was the stabling of the palace, and could only have been appropriated to the horses and chariots of the noble Cyrenean who inhabited it. As we have never seen the stables of any ancient residence, whether Grecian or Roman, we will not venture to assign such a use to these chambers; but it is well known that the Cyreneans were particularly celebrated for their skilful management of horses and chariots, and we must confess, without being either coachmen or grooms, that such an appropriation did more than once occur to us[8].

There are remains of apartments adjoining each other to the westward of the handsome colonnades which we have mentioned, the plans of which we would not hazard without excavation; nor could we without it complete that of the porticoes, the columns of which are nearly four feet in diameter. The whole building appears to have extended about three hundred feet in a southerly direction, and to have occupied more than four hundred in length from east to west. There are remains of much larger columns, near the road, at the southern extremity of this large mass of building; and we feel confident that matter of considerable interest is still to be found beneath the rich soil which covers it, in their immediate vicinity and neighbourhood. Corn is now growing over a great part of the ground in question; and an old Arab, who was employed in cutting it down, when we measured the remains of building just described, was greatly astonished at the trouble we gave ourselves in walking over and examining them in a very hot day; when he could scarcely himself make his mind up to cut down his wheat, which was certainly a matter (he said) of much more importance. He had his gun ready charged by his side, and moved it along with him as he changed his position in reaping; a ceremony at which we should have been a little surprised, if we had not before seen frequent instances of similar precaution in the Arabs of the Syrtis and Cyrenaica. In fact, the Bedouin, like the Albanian or the Corsican, never stirs out without his gun, if he has one; for it rarely happens that any individual has not some feud upon his hands, and it is necessary to be provided with the means of defence, in a country where every man is the legal avenger of his own or his family’s wrongs. We use the term Bedouin, because, although our swarthy friend was cutting wheat, he was at the same time a wandering Arab; and only visited the place periodically, chiefly during the summer season. For three parts of the year Cyrene is untenanted, except by jackalls and hyænas, and the Bedouins pitch their tents chiefly on the low ground to the southward of the range on which the city is built. Were it not for its elevated position, Cyrene would probably, on account of its luxuriant pasturage, and the abundant supply of fresh water which it possesses, be at all times a favourite haunt of the wandering tribes of the Cyrenaica: but the Arab, for an active man, is one of the most lazy of any race of people with which we are acquainted, and will rather forego a very decided advantage than give himself much trouble in acquiring or maintaining it; he would in consequence easily persuade himself that the advantages which Cyrene must be acknowledged to possess, would be more than counterbalanced by the trouble of ascending and descending its hills, and of driving his flocks and his camels to water in places which would be thought inconvenient.

We are not aware that it will be of any service to dwell further upon the nature and condition of the buildings of Cyrene; as much as we were able to collect (with the time and means which we had at our disposal) has already been given of the objects most worthy of notice; and to say more would only be to offer conjecture, on subjects which do not afford sufficient data to authorise particular description.

In fact, the whole of the existing remains of this ancient and once beautiful city are at present little more than a mass of ruin; and the tombs afford the most perfect examples of Grecian art now remaining in Cyrene. To give plans of half these would be impossible, unless whole years of labour were devoted to the task; but we really believe, that any zealous antiquary, any person with tolerable feeling for the arts, would with pleasure devote every day to such employment should he find himself stationed for years in their neighbourhood.

We never, ourselves, passed our time more agreeably, than in collecting the details which we have been able to procure of them; and shall never forget the sensations of delight—we will not use a less impressive term—which we experienced on our first introduction to these beautiful examples of Grecian art.

The position of the tombs, as well as that of the city, has been already described, and too much can scarcely be said in its praise; we wish that our limits would allow us to give more of the architectural details of the former than can be collected from the general view of them; but we shall probably avail ourselves of some other opportunity of submitting a few examples to public inspection, and can only at present refer for some idea of them to the view which we have just alluded to. To have lived in the flourishing times of Cyrene would indeed have been a source of no trivial enjoyment; and we are ashamed to say how often we have envied those who beheld its numerous buildings in a state of perfection, and occupied, in their former cultivated state, the beautiful spots on which they stand.

We must not, however, take our leave of the city, without adverting once more to the excavated channel that has been formed for the water of the principal fountain, to which we have formerly alluded. We had been so much occupied in walking over the ruins, and collecting the details of Cyrene and Apollonia, that it was only the day before we set out on our return to Bengazi, that we were able to explore this passage to the end. It is formed entirely in the rock from which the stream issues, and runs, in an irregular course, for nearly a quarter of a mile into the bowels of the mountain: the sides and roof of the passage are flat, where time and the action of the current (which is very strong) have not worn them away; but the bottom is encumbered with stones, bedded fast in a quantity of clay which has accumulated about it and against the sides. The general height of this subterranean channel is scarcely five feet, an elevation which we found rather inconvenient, for it obliged us to stoop a good deal in advancing; and as it would not have been possible to examine the place properly, or indeed to have preserved our light, without keeping the head and body in an upright position, we usually found the water making higher encroaches than its chilling cold rendered agreeable.

In some places, however, where there appear to have been originally flaws or fissures in the rock, the roof was irregular, and there was room enough to stand upright, an occurrence of which we very gladly availed ourselves, to the great relief of our knees. We found the average width from three to four feet, although in the places just mentioned it was occasionally as much as six feet; and were it not for the clay which has been collected against the sides, we should often have suffered from their roughness. From the irregularity of the course of the passage we were obliged to take bearings very often; and at each time we stopped for this purpose we took down the distance measured with our chain between the point we stopped at and the last; so that after much trouble we succeeded in obtaining a tolerably correct plan of the whole. The length and course of the channel will be seen in the plan of Cyrene, where it is marked with a dotted line beginning from the cliff, at the foot of which the fountain now discharges itself, and runs across the level ground on which the amphitheatre, and little temple (as we have named it) of Diana are situated. Within forty feet of the end of the channel (that is to say, about thirteen hundred feet from its beginning at the foot of the cliff), it becomes so low, that a man cannot advance farther without creeping upon his hands and knees, and then finishes in a small aperture scarcely a foot in diameter, beyond which of course it is impossible to penetrate. We were not a little surprised at the length of this singular excavation, which seemed, as we advanced, as if it never would finish; and as we could not accelerate our mode of operation without sacrificing the plan of the passage, we had to remain for several hours in the water before we had completed our task. We must say, however, that with all the inconvenience of the stooping position which we were obliged to assume, and the extreme cold of the water, we found the undertaking a very agreeable one, for the interest naturally increased with the length of the passage, and we were more than rewarded for our trouble and temporary annoyance before we reached the end of the passage. In fact we observed after continuing our route for some time, that the clay, which we have already mentioned had been washed down in considerable quantities by the current, was occasionally plastered against the sides of the passage, and smoothed very carefully with the palm of the hand: in this we thought we perceived that something like letters had been scratched, which we should scarcely have thought it worth while to examine, had we not been a little curious to know what Europeans had visited the place before us; we knew of none besides Signor Della Cella, who does not appear from his own account to have penetrated more than a few steps beyond the entrance[9]—probably to the first turning, as far as which the light from without would guide him. Our first conclusion was, that some of our own party had taken this method of writing their names on the wall,—a practice which John Bull seldom neglects in any part of the world which he visits; or that some intrepid Arab had allowed his curiosity to prevail over his fear of evil spirits, and penetrated thus far into the subterranean channel[10]: it never, in effect, for a moment occurred to us, that the characters (whatever they were,), which might be traced on so perishable a surface, were of more than very recent formation. Our surprise may in consequence be readily imagined when we found, on a closer examination, that the walls of the place were covered with Greek inscriptions; some of which, from their dates, must have remained on the wet clay for more than fifteen hundred years, whatever might have been the periods at which others had been written: the preservation of these may certainly be accounted for, by the dampness of the place, and its extreme seclusion, which would conspire to prevent the clay from cracking and dropping off, and from being rubbed off by intruders; but we were not prepared to meet with inscriptions engraved on so yielding a substance, and certainly not to find that, having once been written, they should have remained on it down to the present day, as perfect as when they were left there by those whose visit they were intended to commemorate. They consist, of course, chiefly in a collection of names; many of which are Roman, and the earliest of the most conspicuous dates which we remarked and copied, (for it would take whole days to read and copy them all) were those of the reign of Dioclesian. We could collect no other fact from those which we read, than that a priest appears to have officiated at the fountain, after Cyrene became a Roman colony, whose name and calling (in the form επι ιερεος, &c.) are usually written after the name of the visiter. They are in general very rudely scratched, with a point of any kind (a sword or knife, perhaps, or the stone of a ring,) and often with the point of the fingers. We observed a few Arabic inscriptions among the rest, but were so much occupied in reading over the Greek ones, in order to gain some intelligence respecting the fountain, which might serve to throw light upon the period at which the channel was excavated, or other questions of interest, that we neglected to copy them. There is an appearance in one of the Greek inscriptions of allusion to the name of Apollo, the deity to whom we suppose this fountain to have been sacred; but the letters are not sufficiently clear to establish the fact decidedly, although we do not see what other sense could be given to the words in question, with so much probability of being that which the writer intended; and it is plain, that as the sentence now stands it is incomplete[11]. We could not succeed in finding any Greek dates of antiquity, although the Greek names are very numerous; but a person accustomed to the many negligent modes of writing the character, with plenty of time and light at his disposal, might probably succeed in finding Greek inscriptions of more interest than we were able to discover in the mass of writing here alluded to; a great portion of which, as might naturally be expected, consists of rude scrawls and hasty scratches—mere apologies in fact for letters almost of any kind. That the fountain continued to be an object of curiosity, and probably of religious veneration, after the cession of the country to the Romans, may, however, be inferred from what we have stated; and a minimum may at least be established with respect to the date of the excavated channel, if we cannot ascertain the precise time of its formation, or whether it was cut at one or at several periods.

We have already mentioned that several hours had elapsed, from the time of our entering the channel to that of our re-appearance at its mouth; and we really believe that the Arabs of the place, who had collected themselves round the fountain to see us come out, were extremely disappointed to find that no accident had befallen any one of the party; in spite of the demons so confidently believed to haunt its dark and mysterious recesses. For our own parts, we could not help laughing very heartily at the ridiculous appearance which each of us exhibited on first coming into the light, covered as we were from head to foot with the brown clay accumulated in the channel of the fountain, which had adhered too closely to be washed away by the stream, although its current, as we have mentioned, was extremely rapid.

As the next day was that which had been fixed for our departure, we employed the remainder of the afternoon in making preparations for the journey, and set out early on the following morning for Bengazi. Captain Beechey and Lieutenant Coffin had already preceded us, with the intention of running over to Malta, in order to procure a small vessel for the embarkation of the statues, which we had decided upon removing to Apollonia, where the vessel would have taken them on board. On their arrival, however, at Bengazi, they found a packet of letters from England; and among them, was a despatch from the Foreign Office, which made it necessary that we should alter our plan, and give up any further operations. As the season was far advanced, during which any vessels are found in the harbour of Bengazi, a passage was secured in the last which remained, and camels were despatched to Cyrene to bring away our baggage and tents.

The interval was employed in completing the plans of the buildings and tombs at Cyrene; and that of the excavated channel of the fountain was the last upon which we employed ourselves. We had determined, on first discovering this passage, to explore it as far as it might be found practicable, and the first leisure moment was accordingly devoted to it on the day which preceded our departure.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: See Shaw’s Travels in Barbary vol. ii. p. 286.]

[Footnote 2: “About forty years ago, when M. Le Maire was French consul at Tripoly, he made great inquiries, by order of the French court, into the truth of this report; and amongst other very curious accounts relating to the same place, he told me a remarkable circumstance to the great discredit and even confutation of all that had been so positively advanced with regard to the petrified bodies of men, children, and other animals. Some of the Janizaries who, in collecting the tribute, travel over every year one part or other of this district of Ras Sem, promised him that, as an adult person would be too heavy and burdensome, they would undertake, for a certain number of dollars, to bring him from thence the body of a little child. After a great many pretended difficulties, delays, and disappointments, they produced at length a little Cupid, which they had found, as he learnt afterwards, among the ruins of Leptis; and to conceal the deceit, they broke off the quiver and some other of the distinguishing characteristics of that deity.”

“M. Le Maire’s inquiries (he continues), which we find were supported by the promise and performance of great rewards, have brought nothing further to light. He could never learn, after sending a number of persons expressly, and at a great expense, to make discoveries, that any traces of walls or buildings, animals, or utensils, were ever to be seen within the verge of these pretended petrifactions. The same account he heard from a Sicilian renegado, who attended him as Janissary while in Egypt, and assured him that he had been several times at Ras Sem; and also from another Sicilian renegado, whom the Bashaw of Tripoly had appointed Bey or Viceroy of the province of Derna, where Ras Sem was immediately under his jurisdiction.”]

[Footnote 3: The position of Ghirrza, and of several of the most conspicuous objects on the road to that place from Tripoly, are as follows:—

Latitudes. Longitudes.
° ′ ″ ° ′ ″
Ghirrza Ruins 31 07 16 14 40 50
Benhoulat Square Tower 31 28 10 14 18 15
Benioleet Castle 31 45 38 14 12 10
Wady Denator-huts 31 52 10 14 03 50
Wou-lad-ben-Merian Pass 32 21 40 13 34 22
Wahryan Mountain-summit 32 07 50 13 02 10

]

[Footnote 4: The passage of Vitruvius in question, is as follows, as we have extracted it from Wilkins’s translation:—

“From the foregoing investigations,”—those of Aristoxenus on the doctrine of harmony, “brazen vases have been made upon mathematical calculations, proportioned to the magnitude of the theatre. They are so constructed, that upon being struck, they form amongst themselves concords of the fourth, fifth, regularly in succession, on to the double octave. They are then arranged amongst the seats of the theatre according to a certain musical proportion, in cells made for their reception. They ought not to be placed in contact with the wall, but have a vacant space above and around them. They should be inverted, and the edge next the stage raised by means of wedges, six inches in height at the least: apertures ought to be made in the seats of the lower row, opposite to the cells, two feet in width, and one in height.”

“If the theatre be not very spacious,” continues our author, “thirteen arched cells will be sufficient, in which as many vases are to be placed in the order which he proceeds to point out, by observing which, the voice,” he says, “which diverges every where from the stage, as from a centre, striking each of these hollow vases, will acquire an increase of clearness and strength, and at the same time produce corresponding tones in concord with its own sounds.” “It may, perhaps, be said,” continues Vitruvius, “that many theatres are built every year at Rome, in which no attention has been paid to these points: the objection, however, is not applicable; because it is not considered that all public theatres constructed with wood have many surfaces, which act as sounding-boards. The truth of which will be manifest, if we observe those who sing to the harp; who, whenever they wish to sing in a higher tone, turn themselves to the leaves of the scene; from which they receive the assistance of corresponding sounds. But when theatres are not sonorous, in consequence of their being built with solid materials, such as stone or marble, whether wrought or unhewn, it then becomes necessary to have recourse to the expedient just explained. Many skilful architects, who have built theatres in small towns, have, in order to lessen the expense, adopted vases of pottery instead of brass, of the same pitch; and, by arranging them according to these principles have produced the most useful effects.”

We may remark on this subject, that it has hitherto been doubted, by persons well qualified to judge of architectural details, whether the practice alluded to by Vitruvius in the foregoing passage, was ever really adopted by the ancients for the purpose which he mentions. Mr. Wilkins has noticed a passage in Pliny, which alludes to a mode of building peculiar to the walls of theatres; in the construction of which, hollow vessels of earthenware were immured, and whenever it was required to prolong the vibrations, or to increase the powers of the voice, the orchestra was strewn with sand or saw-dust, by which means, the voice being directed to the body of the house, the sounds were carried along the walls so long as there was no impediment to obstruct their course; whereas, in the walls of other edifices, the interior space between the two faces of the wall was filled in with rubble. “In describing this mode of building,” continues Mr. Wilkins, “Pliny might have had our author in view; whose mention of vases received a degree of confirmation from the fact, that earthern vessels were sometimes inserted in the masonry of ancient buildings. An instance in which this practice has been adopted, occurs in the Circus of Caracalla. Vases are there found regularly distributed in the stone work above the crown of the arches, which were constructed for the purpose of giving a proper degree of elevation to the seats of the spectators. The object of their introduction seems to be the diminution of weight. Vitruvius confesses (Mr. Wilkins adds) that there was no theatre at Rome which had vases for such a purpose; although he states them to have been in use in the provinces of Italy, and in most of the cities of Greece. It is certain, however, that in the various theatres which have fallen within our observation, no provision has been made for the reception of vases, in the situation which Vitruvius assigns to them.”

Since the publication of Mr. Wilkins’s Vitruvius, the researches of Mr. William Bankes have fortunately enabled him to throw light upon the subject in question; for in Syria this gentleman discovered a theatre which was constructed in the manner alluded to by Vitruvius, and in which some of the vases were actually found in the situations which he has assigned to them.

We had flattered ourselves on first perceiving the hollow spaces, which were left under the seats of the theatre which we are describing at Cyrene, that we had ourselves discovered a second confirmation of this practice; but no brazen vases appeared in the spaces in question; and the few remains of pottery which we found in some of them, will not even justify us in asserting that they contained originally vases of earthenware.]

[Footnote 5: “Ho trovato che internamente ciascuna di queste pietre era scolpita di una lettera d’ un alfabeto a me ignoto; cosi la serie di queste lettere veniva a formare una linea, e queste linee si ripetevano per ogni serie di pietre. Tentai de copiarle, ed entrai con questo progetto nell’ aquidotto; ma tra la poca luce che vi trapeleva da soli luoghi ov’ era rotto, e l’acqua che spesso a lunghi tratti vi ristagnava, e l’incomoda positura che doveva prendere per ben riconoscerle, dovette ristarmi dall’ intrapresa. Benche questi caratteri, del pari che altre iscrizioni segnate sopra queste rovine, appartengano a lingue perdute affatto; tuttavolta io non ho mai avvisato essere inutil cosa il registrarli, quando mi è occorso di trovarne. Oltrechè questi caratteri possono per avventura fornire qualche nuovo elemento agli alfabeti tuttora oscuri di coteste lingue, conservano ancora solenni documenti de’ popoli a diversa lingua che in queste contrade mano a mano vennero a stabilirsi. Sono questi i soli documenti che ci ritengano, dall’ abbandonarci interamente all’ autorità de’ Greci scrittori, i quali si sa che mossi da soverchia tenerezza per le cose loro, non sapevan temperarsi dal vedere Greche origine ovunque vedean traccie d’incivilmento, e non videro diffatti che Greci, e discendenti dalla colonia di Tera, nella Cirenaica.”—(_Viaggio da Tripoli_, &c. p. 136.)]

[Footnote 6:

We take these characters from the last page of Signor Della Cella’s book, where they are inserted without any remarks, and presume that they must be those alluded to; since all the other inscriptions which he has introduced in different parts of his work are accounted for, and are either in Greek or Latin. It will be evident, we think, to all who are accustomed to see Greek and Roman quarry marks, that the characters in question are no other, and could never have been found on any single stone.]

[Footnote 7:

]

[Footnote 8: The pasturage of Cyrene and Barca was always, as it is at present, abundant; and both cities were remarkable for their excellent breed of horses, and their more than ordinary skill in driving. Pindar gives the epithet ἔυιππος (renowned for horses) to Cyrene; and the Barceans, we are told (see the ἐθνικὰ of Stephanus), derived their art of rearing them from Neptune, and their dexterity in the management of chariots from Minerva. οἵ τας ἱπποτροφιας παρα Ποσειδωνος, ἡνιοχειν δε παρα Αθηνᾶς ημαθον.]

[Footnote 9: Scavato ad arte è lo sbocco di questa fonte, e questo incavo ben oltre si prolunga attraverso la montagna, ove io _per qualche tratto_ volli penetrare, a malgrado le minaccie delle mie guide, che credono quella cavità ordinaria stanza di spiriti malevoli.]

[Footnote 10: The Arabs of the present day whom we met with at Cyrene, would on no account be persuaded to enter the passage in question, which they believe (as Dr. Della Cella truly observes) to be the abode of evil spirits.]

[Footnote 11: We imagine the words to have been, επι ιερεος του μεγιστου Απολλωνος, but the ος is wanting after Απολλων, and the μ in μεγιστου; in which latter word also the ε and γ look more like an α and a τ. The rest of the inscription is clear; and were we only to give it as a fragment, επι ιερεος του...ιστου Απολλων.., there would, probably, be no doubt raised with respect to the manner of reading it.]